


don't take me tongue tied

by c0sm0_nautical



Category: Original Work
Genre: I'm a slut for romance, Other, Slow Burn, There will probably be trauma at some point just letting you know now
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-25
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-17 13:00:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28974777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/c0sm0_nautical/pseuds/c0sm0_nautical
Summary: Hey there! This is my first story, so please go easy on me. If you couldn't already tell, this story is inspired by the song Tongue Tied by Grouplove. Hope you enjoy!
Relationships: Original Male Character(s)/Original Non-Binary Character(s)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 2





	don't take me tongue tied

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there! This is my first story, so please go easy on me. If you couldn't already tell, this story is inspired by the song Tongue Tied by Grouplove. Hope you enjoy!

Ollie was very shy. There was no real reason for his shyness, it's just the way he had always been. Crowds terrified him, and he absolutely hated drawing attention to himself. Which is why, when his best friend Beth strolled up to his locker sporting bright, freshly dyed pink hair, he shrunk back into the wall, hoping none of the students walking by would stop and stare.

"Wow," he said quietly. "That's new."

"Huh? Oh, my hair," Beth said, self consciously reaching up to tuck a strand behind her ear. "Yeah, I dyed it last night. Do you like it?"

"Yeah, it looks really cool! Just a bit of a shock, is all," Ollie replied, grabbing the last of his books and shutting his locker. "What are you doing this weekend? I was thinking we could meet up and study for the chemistry test next week."

"Um, about that." Beth turned to face him, and there was a look in her eye that made Ollie think he wasn't going to like what she said next. "There's gonna be a party this Friday. I was hoping you would go with me?" she said, her voice raising slightly as she finished her sentence.

"Nope. No way. Absolutely not." Ollie's heart was already racing just thinking about all the people that would be at the party. Ollie had never been to a party, and he planned to keep it that way as long as he could.

"Ollie!" Beth pleaded, stretching out his name. "I have to go to this party. Jaden is going to be there."

He rolled his eyes at her. Jaden. Ollie had never understood what she saw in him. Sure, he played football, but that seemed to be his only redeeming quality. "Why don't you just go by yourself?"

"I'll probably need a driver, dummy. Didn't you just get a car? Plus, maybe we'll find you a girlfriend there!"

Ollie rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s not really my car,” he said, ignoring Beth’s comment about a girlfriend. “I just have a key to it.”

“Same thing. So, will you come with me?”

Ollie looked into her eyes for a moment, wishing he could say no. But of course, he couldn’t. Beth had done so much for him in the past that he owed her one, at least this once. “Fine,” he said begrudgingly. “But if I fail the chem test next week, it’s totally your fault.”

“Good thing you won’t fail! I gotta go, but I’ll see you later,” she said. Ollie waved as she walked away before turning and heading toward his own class. He was jittery thinking about the party already, and it was still four days away. Why on earth had he agreed to go?

* * *

The following days passed in a blur, and before he knew it, Ollie was sitting in his car in Beth’s driveway, waiting to pick her up. He had been almost ten minutes late getting to her house, but Beth still wasn’t ready to go. Ollie was considering giving up and going back to his house to have a quiet night of studying and watching movies by himself when Beth finally walked out the front door.

She was stunning. Her pale skin was practically glowing, and her hair was tied up into a style that looked elegant and effortless at the same time. People had always asked Ollie if Beth was his girlfriend, and for a second, he understood why. Beth was everything he thought he wasn’t; social, intelligent, beautiful. Sometimes he wished he was attracted to her, if only to escape his older brother’s mocking remarks about Ollie not being able to get a girlfriend. Ollie had just never thought about Beth that way.

“Hey!” Beth’s voice was bright as she opened the passenger door and slid into the car. She reached forward to the computer screen on the car’s dashboard, inputting an address in a part of town he had never been to. “Here’s where the party is.”

“I’ve never been over there,” Ollie said softly, pulling out of her driveway.

“Yeah, me neither. It’s apparently just a lot of big houses. Far apart, too, so we shouldn’t get any noise complaints. This party is going to be great.”

Ollie shrugged at that. He seriously doubted that he would have any fun.

“You’ll see,” Beth said. “You’re gonna love it.”

“If you say so.”

* * *

As Ollie slowly approached the house, he passed by dozens of cars lining the street in front. It seemed like there were more people at this party than Ollie had ever met. He caught a glimpse of the backyard, which contained a large pool as well as some kind of shed.

He parked as close to the front door as he could manage, which was to say he parked almost a block away. As he and Beth walked inside, Ollie immediately wished he had stayed home. The music was so intense he couldn’t tell what was the bass line and what was his own heartbeat. He squinted through the light haze that filled the room, searching for anyone he might recognize.

Beth slipped away from him almost immediately, wandering off toward a group of girls she knew from some of her classes. Ollie spun around slowly, trying to take in everything around him. He started toward the kitchen, which was, as far as he could tell, the brightest and least crowded room in the entire house. At the bar stood a few people he vaguely recognized from school, but he didn’t know any of their names.

A broad-shouldered boy, likely a football player, looked Ollie up and down with a look of surprise in his eyes. “Hey, kid,” he said. “What can I get ya?” He gestured to the various kinds of alcohol spread across the counter in front of him.

Ollie felt his cheeks get warm when the other boy called him “kid.” He didn’t look that young, did he? He tried to turn down the offer of a drink, but to no avail. The boy playing bartender shoved a red cup of what Ollie assumed was beer into Ollie’s hands before turning back to his own drink.

Ollie started to slowly back out of the kitchen, hoping to find Beth and ask if they could leave. He tentatively sniffed at the cup in his hand, wrinkling his nose in disgust when he caught a whiff of the bitter liquid within. He didn’t understand how people could bear to drink that stuff.

Ollie wove through the crowd, trying to find Beth. Instead, he found the group of girls she had left him for when they had first arrived. Ollie asked them if they knew where Beth was, and the girls directed him toward the stairs, saying that Beth had gone to find Jaden. Ollie thanked them, leaving his red cup of beer with them. They would probably appreciate it more than him, he thought.

As he walked through the hallway toward the stairs, Ollie silently cursed Beth for convincing him to join her at the party. As Ollie rounded the corner to the stairs, a dark blur suddenly flew down them, knocking Ollie down onto his back. His head hit the floor, making his eyes water.

“Shit, dude. I totally didn’t see you there. My bad.”

Ollie squinted up to where the voice had come from, and was met by the most piercing set of steel gray eyes he had ever seen. He didn’t recognize the person who had spoken, but he was immediately transfixed by them. Ollie couldn’t tell if the person who had knocked him over was a boy or a girl; they seemed to have a perfect mix of feminine and masculine features. They brushed a strand of black hair out of their face before extending a hand to help Ollie up.

“Are you alright? You look kinda sick,” the stranger said with genuine concern in their voice. “Fuck, did you hit your head too hard or something?”

Ollie blinked, shaking his head. “No, I’m fine. It’s just - the music is really loud in here.”

The stranger nodded. “Yeah, I get that. It can take some getting used to. Here, follow me.” They took Ollie by the hand and led him toward the sliding back door, directing them around the pool and toward the shed Ollie had seen earlier. They let go of Ollie’s hand, much to his dismay, before clambering up the garbage can at the side of the shed and pulling themself up onto the roof. Ollie suspected he was meant to follow the stranger, and follow he did.

On top of the shed, Ollie could still hear the music coming from inside the house, but it was now at a much more tolerable volume. He turned and looked at the stranger, who was gazing up toward the stars. “Um, hi,” he said awkwardly. “I’m Ollie.”  
“Sorin.” The stranger looked over at him as they said this with a friendly tone in their voice. “Sorry again for pushing you over.”

“Don’t be. It’s not like you meant to, right?” Sorin let out a small laugh. “So, how’d you know to come up here?”

“Oh, this is my dad’s house. He’s out of town for the next week for work. I always come up here when I’m upset.” Sorin shifted so that their side was pressed gently against Ollie’s. They wrapped their arms around themself, muttering, “Damn. It’s cold out here.”

Ollie fidgeted with his hands, acutely aware of every spot where his body met Sorin’s. He thought he should say something instead of just sitting in silence, when suddenly, his phone buzzed against his thigh with a message from Beth. **_I wanna leave :( this party sucks ass_** , the message read, and Ollie was oddly grateful for the chance to do something other than sit in silence with the beautiful stranger.

Ollie moved toward the edge of the roof, trying as hard as he could to not slip off. “Sorry to leave so soon, but my friend needs me. I gotta go,” he said.

“No problem,” Sorin said with a smile in their eyes. “Hopefully I’ll see you again soon.” Ollie’s heart skipped a beat. What the hell was that supposed to mean?

* * *

Later that night, long after he had dropped Beth off at her house, Ollie laid in his bet, trying desperately to push Sorin out of his mind. He didn’t even understand why he was thinking about them, just like he didn’t understand why he had been so excited at the prospect of seeing them again. Ollie was straight; he liked girls, and only girls. And while Ollie didn’t think Sorin was a boy, he knew they definitely weren’t a girl. So why couldn’t he stop thinking about them?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you enjoyed this or have any feedback, please leave a comment. I'll read every one. My tumblr is @crazy--assed--cosmonaut; I post a lot of cool stuff and I talk about this story a lot. Huge thanks to my editor Paige (@paigeinabook441 on tumblr). I plan on updating this as regularly as I can, but I'm a student and I currently have a lot on my plate, so no promises. Thanks for reading!


End file.
